• 5 Questions Every New Fire Officer Should Ask in the First 90 Days

    5 Questions Every New Fire Officer Should ask in the First 90 Days is a companion article to Raising the Standard: Fire Service Leaders Need More Than Experience on Firefighter Nation. Pinning on your bugles is a milestone. What happens in the 90 days that follow will shape your credibility, your relationships, and your effectiveness…

  • Leader-Follower vs. Leader-Leader on the Fireground

    What the Model Looks Like in Practice A follow-up to Why the Fire Service Needs to Shift from Leader-Follower to Leader-Leader In January, I wrote about why the fire service needs to move from a Leader-Follower culture to a Leader-Leader model — one where thinking, initiative, and ownership aren’t reserved for the person with the…

  • Fire Service Digital Business Card Generator

    A Smarter Way to Share Your Contact Info Printed business cards have one fatal flaw: they freeze you in time. Roles evolve, phone numbers change, or maybe you change departments, and suddenly that box of cards you ordered last year is quietly working against you. Careers move fast; cardstock doesn’t. And are you remembering to…

  • 1984 Union Oil Disaster

    At a refinery in Romeoville, Illinois 17 lives were lost. 10 were members of the refinery fire brigade who responded to the explosion only to be caught in the second event. Multiple critical errors occurred to lead to this failure point including the overall process and the inspection and testing of vessel integrity after repair.